LISTEN TO KHALED

HUMAN RIGHTS

Khaled has on several occasions supported implementation of human rights laws and observing implementation of international human rights conventions (Starting at the 64:00 mark at the link above).

As a public servant, Khaled proposed to the Egyptian government to honour international treaties signed by previous governments and to maintain balanced relationships with Europe and the USA. He also advocated for women and Christians to run for office (including the presidency) and acknowledged women as equal partners in carrying the country’s responsibility.

DEMOCRACY

On several occasions, Khaled has spoken on the need for Egypt to achieve democratic values and to use the exercise of achieving them as a means for reconciling the different political parties in the country.

Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Khaled asked for help from the international community to help Egyptians in achieving democratic values. He wanted to find common ground with all Egyptian parties (including the minorities, as well as political rivals) to prepare a constitution (Starting at the link above at time index 6:20).

LIMITS OF POWER

Khaled was involved in drafting an NGO-related legislation in early 2013 with the following principle: The executive branch should not be the arbiter of any alleged violations of the law by civil society organizations and the executive simply does not have the power to ban organizations or stop their work without due process.

Human Rights Work

The following work was directly lead by Khaled Al-Qazzaz during his term in the Presidential Office

Objectives of the Human Rights Portfolio

1.To evaluate the current situation of human rights in Egypt.

2.Propose a long term strategy to create a rights environment among the institutions and individuals.

3.Propose revisions and amendments to laws that are not compatible with human rights.

Steps Taken

Created a coordinator for human rights position in the presidential office for the first time in Egyptian history.

Sent a call for rights organizations to send their amendments on the articles of the constitution to be adopted by the presidency

Proposed the NGO draft law which was based upon creating a free and encouraging environment for NGOs

Invited human rights organizations into the Presidential Office

 “I met Khaled along with other presidential aides.. Khaled was kind of the go to person when we wanted to raise issues about developing new improved legislation on things like the rights of NGOs to organize and operate without government micromanagement and without intrusion by the security services.. He was someone we had an ongoing discussion with.”

“He was trying to change things.. Among the presidential aides who we had regular contact with he was certainly one of the people who, based on what he said to us, and the dialogue that continued over the course of a year, he was genuinely interested in these kind of reforms.”